Cayman Turtle Farm welcomes new arrivals

Chalk up a few more visitors to the Cayman Turtle Farm – only these newcomers are now residents and part of the show.

The popular tourist attraction in West Bay has announced the recent birth of three blue peachicks to their parents, a blue peacock and peahen.

The 4-week-old birds live with their parents on Peacock Island, which is in Turtle Lagoon where visitors go salt water snorkelling with fish and yearling turtles.

Geddes Hislop, curator of the Turtle Farm’s Terrestrial and Education Programmes who cares for the birds, said though the peacocks’ native land is thousands of miles away, the birds thrive in Grand Cayman.

“Peacocks are originally from India and Eastern Asia,” Mr. Hislop said. “However, they are of the pheasant family and have been domesticated all over the world. We obtained all our peafowl from a local breeder and are excited to showcase these beautiful animals here at the Cayman Turtle Farm.”

The Turtle Farm also is expecting a pair of white peacocks to join the flock on Leeward Key – another island in the lagoon – in the near future, Mr. Hislop said.

“White peacocks are never seen in the wild,” he said. “They are a domestically bred colour morph, not an albino, as they have blue eyes. They are not commonly seen even among peacock breeders.”

Opened in 1968, the Cayman Turtle Farm has served for decades as a tourist attraction and commercial breeding operation for a Caribbean island nation whose social and economic history is tied to marine turtles.